How to Use Emojis to Soften Bad News at Work

Researchers from Chatham University in Pennsylvania say the impact of negative online messages about work can be softened by using emojis.

In the 26 years since the first emoji appeared, these symbols have become hugely popular worldwide.

Many of us use them regularly in office emails and text messages. Until recently, there wasn’t a clear scientific verdict on using emojis at work. A 2018 study looked at thumbs-up and heart emojis and concluded they improve workplace communication, according to the Daily Mail. A 2022 study, however, was more skeptical, suggesting that people who swap emojis with colleagues may be less influential among their peers.

The team behind the new research defended emojis and the people who use them. Dr. Monica Riordan says emojis can help convey negative messages, capturing subtle conversational nuances that plain text can’t—or that might be inappropriate to spell out.

What researchers have learned

To understand how emojis affect negative messages at work, the team ran three experiments.

In the first experiment, 105 participants received messages either with emojis or without them. A thumbs-down emoji was used for negative messages, while a clapping emoji signaled positive ones.

In the second experiment, which involved 178 participants, emojis were replaced with GIFs that carried negative or positive emotional tones. In the third study, with 195 volunteers, the researchers compared emoji faces, emotional words, and punctuation marks.

Across all three experiments, the team found that emojis lifted participants’ morale, whether the emojis conveyed negative or positive feelings.

The researchers say using emojis helped recipients perceive high emotional intensity more easily. Emojis also fostered a sense of closeness among team members, which encouraged participants to stay with the group regardless of whether the signal was positive or negative. The team also found emojis are especially useful for connecting colleagues who work from home.

“Whether working remotely or face-to-face, the ability to express negative emotions appropriately is important for achieving good results,” the researchers wrote in Computers in Human Behavior.

As researchers at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona showed in 2018, people around the world use about six billion emojis every day to express feelings.